3 to read: How Arianna lost her newsroom | A lost generation of journos | Why go into journalism? | 3 TO READ: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week

By Matt Carroll <@MattatMIT>

Sept. 13, 2016: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.com.

How Arianna Huffington lost her newsroom: One of the pioneers of digital journalism alienated her newsroom through her willingness to sacrifice editorial standards when it came to covering her friends — who ranged from the Dalai Lama to Bill Maher. A blistering critique of someone who lost her way, by William D. Cohan of VANITY FAIR.
A lost generation of journalists: It’s been a brutal decade for many experienced newspaper journalists across the country over the past decade, as layoffs and closures have transformed the face of the profession. A Kansas professor, who just happened to start studying journalists as the crisis hit, wrote a book about what he calls “Journalism’s Lost Generation.” It’s as depressing as the title sounds. An interview with Prof. Scott Reinardy, by Deron Lee of Columbia Jrn Review.
Why go into journalism?: After the last piece, I thought people might need a little pick-me-up. This is it. John Harris, editor-in-chief of Politico, writes a thoughtful essay on why a young person would decide to become a journalist. Partly, he writes, it’s because the work allows you to “ask people questions, to follow personal curiosity where it will take you.” But maybe the greater answer (for many) is that in “modest ways every day, and in large ways on big occasions, we are making the world a better place.” An inspiring read.

Matt Carroll runs the Future of News initiative at the MIT Media Lab.